Customer Reviews

The Three-Minute Universe

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Star Trek-The Original Series: The Three-Minute Universe written by Barbara Paul is a very well-crafted and written book that features Uhura.

As Captain James T. Kirk and the Enterprise crew arrive at a planet and discover a ship in orbit, but is it the ship that devastated the colony on the surface? Kirk et.al. discover that this ship is one from a race that is called the "Sackers." A race that is shunned by all in the Federation. They are loathed, disliked, and detested becuse if you just glance at one of them you become violently ill.

The "Sackers" actually have stolen an advanced piece of scientific equipment and have created a interuniversal rift. Kirk and Uhura are the main charaters in this character driven plot. Uhura is finally getting her highlight in this book.

Of course, the author has structured this book quite well and I was staisfied with the flow of the story. As the rip in the fabric of space widens, one universe will leak into the other. It will eventually become one with the other , but there will be devasting consequences.

This is where the Enterprise crew shines, the solution at hand, but will it work or will they have to go back to the drawing board. Will it just be too late as time is running out... the suspense mounts and you will be engaged into this struggle as our universe is being swallowd into the rift.

You've got bad-guys, a situation of univeral proportion. and the Enterprise and her crew facing the incredible odds. All making for a very fast and fascinating read.

One of the best "trek" books,this book has everything!It's also very funny,in fact,one of the funniest trek books.Background:The "Sackers" are a hideous race,universily shunned.Their meer presense causes humans to become ill.Plot:While investigating the destruction of an entire solar system,and the creation of a tear in space from which another universe is rapidly leaking,the Enterprise diverts to Holox,last surviving colony of the destroyed system.Upon arriving,they find the colony devastaited,and an unfamiliar starship in orbit.The away team discovers that the "Sackers" are responsible,and it's their ship in orbit!Soon,the away team,including Capt. Kirk,are captured by them.Then while Spock tries to find a way to rescue Kirk,Kirk must find a way to seal the rift before our universe is replaced by the "Three-minute"one!

Well...it could have been worse. I do like the villians in this novel. They seem to be well thought out, but they are a one-hit-wonder. There is the hint of you seeing them again, but I don't think this has happened yet. There are quite a few humorous parts to this one as well, and anyone who enjoys reading Trek fiction will enjoy this book.

This is the first Pocket novel I read as a kid, and when I saw it available on Kindle it was a must-download.

I'm pleased to say that the book is as good as I remember it. The other reviews sum it up well... the most I can say is that, more so than any other Trek novel, I can easily visualize this as an episode of TOS, with only a few fancy starship moves holding it back from realistically being filmed.

The story is a classic morality play, and the author understands the characters enough such that everyone gets a spotlight.

As one who read the original printing, the Kindle edition does have a few formatting problems, but they are not enough to deprive you of a fine Trek adventure that deserves a spot right up there with Spock's World, Imzadi and the other classics.

Thin premise, but it was easy to suspend disbelief for this unusual, funny story. The main chars are mature, idiosyncratic, and lovable. Everyone gets a chance to shine. We see Uhura handling stress gracefully (she has a contrived fear-of-fire side story, but it's handled better than most such devices); Chekov has a wry sense of humor; McCoy gets to do some actual doctoring; Kirk is . . . well, Kirkish. The original chars are creative, sympathetic, even cute.

Kirk and Co. spend most of their time on the alien ship. Normally a split crew means half the story is way more interesting than the other half, but not so here. A well-rounded, satisfying, humorous read.

The Enterprise has once again been called to investigate a spatial anomoly. This time an entire solar system has been destroyed by a rip that has allowed another universe to begin to form. One that if it continues to grow will totally consume this universe. The investigation leads to the sole remaining remnent of the only sentient race in the destroyed system, a colony that is in the path of the expanding, intruding universe. When the Enterprise arrives they discover that the colony had already been attacked and that the attackers were taking over the planet.

The invaders, who also appear to be linked to the original tear are a race known only as the Sackers. There has been little interaction between the Sackers and the rest of the Federation because the Sackers appearance is so hideous, their odor so appalling, their speech so overwhelming that they make others, humans, Vulcans etc. violently ill. The Sackers had always avoided contact, a situation that the rest of the Federation was quite happy to have continue. Apparently the Sackers had decided to change the rules.

This is an interesting premise but not really all that well done. The intruding universe, the three minute universe of the title appears, then is ignored, then is just dealt with, almost as an after thought. The idea that a race can be so repugnant to all the various races of the Federation is just a bit unlikely. The idea that the Federation would not have bothered to attempt to communicate without actual contact is not consistent with the IDIC ideals that the Federation is supposed to hold in such regard. The final straw is that the Enterprise crew manages to establish communication and overcome their revulsion to the Sackers in just a few days.

Fans of the series will probably enjoy this one but there are better novels available in this tie-in series.

The title and the back cover blurb left me expecting a rather trivial, amateurish book. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the author actually has a good grasp of the characters, and writes an excellent book. Granted, the plot is still rather dubious, and for that reason I rate it four rather than five stars, but the story itself was actually quite moving, and quite enjoyable. Don't be put off if the idea seems silly to you; the book is well worth reading, in spite of a rather trite basic concept.

We've seen this kind of plot before. What makes this book good are the jokes and one liners. Nothing like Scotty saying "We're in for a close encounter of the worst kind, Laddie"

Quality.